Abstract
This document outlines the essence of the 46th and 47th paragraphs of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Judgment, the philosopher addresses the issue of the ontology of genius. He claims that genius is natural and is the only producer of fine arts. Moreover, since "genius is the talent which gives the rule to art?, the work created has to be original. If genius is natural though, it becomes contingent, which implies some notion of fatality which is strongly disapproved of. Declaring that a masterpiece sets an example and rules for art and that it is absolutely original is obviously tempting but I am not quite sure it is rigorous to say so. Surely, both claims have strong foundations, but I think they should be tempered. I do agree with Kant when it comes to say that some people come to life with a natural gift. If something that could be equated with genius, it can be an ability to invent and establish new rules. The word "genius?, as Kant underlines it, comes from Latin origin of "attendant spirit present from one's birth, innate ability or inclination? and is derived from the root of gignere, which means "to beget?. The original sense gave rise to a new one in the late 16th Century, which is the one of a person's characteristic disposition, and led to the one we use today, namely a person's exceptional natural ability.
